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most critical and fundamental aspect of a strong country is a stable and 

 quality food supply. Strong support for base budgets at the land-grant 

 university system is necessary to maintain a quality and stable food 

 supply in the United States. It should be a national priority, not just an 

 individual state priority. 



3. Some individuals advocate a more regional approach to the distribution of 

 formula funding. Are the present efforts made on these Unes adequate or 

 could they be increased? 



I have major concerns about the utilization of funds through the current 

 regional research programs. I believe we could make more effective use of 

 regional research funds by eliminating the current administrative 

 structure and transfer all of the dollars currently associated with regional 

 research projects into a regional competitive grants program. The regional 

 competitive grants program should require the cooperation of scientists 

 from at least 2 or 3 states. The scientists would develop research projects 

 that are truly regional in nature and address high priority topics for the 

 region. After working on regional projects as a faculty member and 

 administrator, I strongly believe that we can obtain stronger research 

 programs by eliminating the current regional approach to research 

 through the USDA-CS^ regional structure. It would be very easy to 

 convert the existing regional research funds to a competitive grants fund. 

 We would greatly reduce administrative costs and provide more dollars 

 for research by converting existing regional funds to competitive research 

 projects for the four regions of the United States. 



4. Both the National Academy of Sciences and the Kellogg Foundation are 

 undertaking studies of the Land-Grant System. What are some changes 

 you feel should be made to prepare us for the 21st Century? 



Outreach 



The Land-Grant University System in the United States is the envy of most 

 countries around the world. The current system has paid big dividends 

 for dollars invested and has provided for an excellent way of life for the 

 citizens of our country. It is time, however, to make significant changes in 

 the land-grant university system in order to meet the needs of the citizens 

 of our country as we prepare for the 21st Century. Agriculture has a great 

 opportunity to make significant changes in the technology transfer area. 

 This includes Extension. We have three distinct groups in agriculture 

 which must be served through the technology transfer process of the land- 

 grant university system. One-third of the users of technology developed 

 at the land-grant university system request rapid transfer of the state of 

 the art technology directly to their business.. We need a special division of 

 the land-grant university system to address the rapid transfer of high 

 technology to aggressive farmers, agribusiness industries and non- 



